Asia's Best & Worst Places to be a Sex Worker

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Thailand and New Zealand sound like
the best places in Asia to be a prostitute because
repressive laws, religions, traditions and other controls
make sex workers' lives miserable, dangerous, violent and
victimized elsewhere.

The worst countries to be
caught possessing a condom while appearing to work as a
prostitute include China, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Malaysia,
Myanmar, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Sri Lanka
and Vietnam.

In those countries, an unused condom
can be used as evidence that a person is an illegal sex
worker.

Renting bodies for money in Asia also
involves niche demographics.

On the Indian
subcontinent, for example, so-called "flying" sex workers
are people, such as students, who work part-time.

Organizations focusing on prostitution, HIV-AIDS and
legal problems discussed these and other issues at a meeting
in Bangkok on Thursday (October 18) while releasing a new
United Nations study titled, "Sex Work and the Law in Asia
and the Pacific."

"Nearly all countries of Asia and
the Pacific criminalize some aspects of sex work," said
United Nations Development Program (UNDP) spokeswoman Cherie
Hart.

"There is no
evidence from countries of Asia and the Pacific that
criminalization of sex work has prevented HIV epidemics
among sex workers and their clients," said the report which
called for "decriminalization."

English words should
also change.

"The terms 'prostitution' and
'prostitute' have negative connotations and are considered
by advocates of sex workers to be stigmatizing," said the
210-page report, authored by human rights lawyer John
Godwin.

"The term 'sex work' is preferred," said the
report, issued by UNDP and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA),
in partnership with the Joint United Nations Program on
HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and several non-governmental organizations
across Asia.

New Zealand, and Australia's New South
Wales, are models of how decriminalization of prostitution
boosted condom use and slowed the spread of HIV, resulting
in "extremely low or non-existent" transmission among sex
workers, said the report.

"I would like to be a sex
worker in New Zealand," said the UNDP's HIV, Health and
Development Practice director Mandeep Dhaliwal when asked
which countries in Asia were the best places for them to
earn a living.

Thailand is also a relatively decent
place to be a prostitute because though illegal, authorities
usually turn a blind eye, enabling many upmarket Thai and
foreign sex workers to enjoy higher wages, cleaner
environments and less hassle compared with elsewhere in
Asia, said Chantawipa Apisuk, who directs Empower, a Thai
foundation led by sex workers.

"I want to live and
work in Thailand," said Ms. Chantawipa.

"I don't
want to work in a country and be called a 'social evil.' In
some countries they still call sex work a 'social evil'.

"In Thailand, although it's illegal, it's still open and
a lot of people, my friends, are working."

Sex
workers should enjoy the same labor conditions as factory
workers or entertainers, said Ms. Chantawipa, who wore a
T-shirt emblazoned with her favorite slogan: "Good girls go
to heaven, bad girls go everywhere."

Ms. Chantawipa,
who is a married mother and is not a prostitute, told the
meeting, "I'm doing sex work at home, but unfortunately I
don't get paid."

Her audience laughed with
appreciation.

During 1996-97, she was a Harvard Law
School Fellow in their International Human Rights Fellowship
Program.

"Empower has just recently received a
small grant project program, which started on September 1,
2012, from the U.S. Embassy, Bangkok," she said after
participating on the panel and launch of the UN report.

The report also studied three categories: "sex work in
private, soliciting, and brothels."

In many Asian
countries, the results were "illegal, illegal, illegal,"
said the report.

Problems are exacerbated when
do-gooders and authorities voice shrill warnings about human
trafficking and forcibly "rescue" prostitutes who do not
want to be "saved."

"The language of some
international and regional instruments have either implied a
strong link between trafficking and sex work, or conflated
these concepts," it said.

Anti-trafficking laws
should focus on people who have been coerced or deceived
into prostitution, or minors, and not target voluntary sex
workers, it said.

"Often, sex workers are portrayed
as passive victims who need to be saved. Assuming that all
workers are trafficked, denies the autonomy and [choice] of
people who sell sex."

Prostitutes "rescued" against
their will, often suffer an immediate and devastating loss
of income.

Their colleagues, also working
voluntarily, then often hide from authorities and end up in
worse conditions where they are exploited and more
vulnerable to HIV infection, the report said.

Arresting customers is also a failed strategy.

"The UNAIDS Advisory Group on Sex Work has noted that
there is no evidence that 'end demand' initiatives reduce
sex work or HIV transmission, or improve the quality of life
of sex workers," it said.

"Compulsory detention of
sex workers, for the purpose of 'rehabilitation' or
're-education' is a highly punitive approach" used in China,
India, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, a country also known as
Burma.

"In some countries, centers are used as a
source of free or cheap labor," it said.

*****Richard S. Ehrlich
is a Bangkok-based journalist from San Francisco,
California, reporting news from Asia since 1978, and
recipient of Columbia University's Foreign Correspondent's
Award. He is a co-author of three non-fiction books about
Thailand, including "Hello My Big Big Honey!" Love Letters
to Bangkok Bar Girls and Their Revealing Interviews; 60
Stories of Royal Lineage; and Chronicle of Thailand:
Headline News Since 1946. Mr. Ehrlich also contributed to
the final chapter, Ceremonies and Regalia, in a new book
titled King Bhumibol Adulyadej, A Life's Work: Thailand's
Monarchy in Perspective.

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